> > I don't think we want that. IMHO the preferred behavior if the > > postmaster crashes should be like a "smart shutdown" --- you don't spawn > > any more backends (obviously) but existing backends should be allowed to > > run until their clients exit. That's how things have always worked > > anyway... > > > > [ thinks ... ] If we do want it we don't need any process-group > > assumptions. The bgwriter is connected to shmem so it can scan the > > PGPROC array and issue kill() against each sibling. > > Right. Which can change the backend behaviour from a smart shutdown to > an immediate shutdown. In the case of a postmaster crash, I think > something in the system is so wrong that I'd prefer an immediate shutdown.
I agree that if the postmaster dies something bad is definately happening. However, there will be a period of time X between the postmaster dying and the bgwriter (or another process, perhaps) discovering this. Which means that the bug/hardware problem/condition which killed the postmaster may affect other live backends. Hmmm. Still, if we can minimise impact then we're probably assisting. We could always add a GUC variable ;-). Gavin ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 6: Have you searched our list archives? http://archives.postgresql.org